Myjoyonline examines Ghana’s attempts to unleash the energy of waste. The country’s private sector initiatives include waste-to-compost and fecal sludge-to-biodiesel plants, as well as plastic waste recycling schemes. By eliminating the indiscriminate dumping of waste into the environment, the West African country hopes to view waste as an energy resource rather than garbage to be discarded.

Because military transport is both expensive and dangerous, the US army’s goal is to minimize transportation costs to its bases reports tgdaily. For example, last year the US military burned through some 50 million gallons of fuel a month in Afghanistan, and 70% of this total was moving fuel and water to bases in the country. Now the US army is studying how it can turn waste into energy at highly mobile base camps and how to address the technical challenges this imposes.

DAILYTECH informs us South Korea wants to turn human waste into fuel. A team of researchers in South Korea has suggested that producing biodiesel from sewage sludge may be cheaper than making it from spent food oil. However the article notes that the quality of waste varies from location to location and amongst given batches at a particular location.The article explains in detail how the process works.

BizTimes tells us food waste will be used to generate electricity in an anaerobic digester located at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The facility will break down organic materials into methane gas that will produce up to 2 MW of power. This is about 16 million kilowatt-hours per yearwhich will be sold back to Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp. The energy production will offset most of the Potawatomi indian community’s energy costs throughout the state. The feedstock for the digester (used cooking oil, food and beverage production waste and animal waste) will come from local sources.

sustainablog says a landfill is producing electricity in St. Louis, Missouri. (with video) The Maryland Heights Renewable Energy Center is one of the largest landfill gas-to-electricity generating energy centers in the United States. It generates approximately 15 MW of electricity by burning a landfill gas – methane – that was previously wasted. That’s enough energy to power 10,000 average Missouri homes.

From Waste Management World we are introduced to a landfill gas trigeneration plantin Atlanta, Georgia. It is the first of its kind in the US. The plant produces heat, electricity and cooling for Coca Cola. The combination of power, heat and cooling supplied by the facility satisfy almost the entire energy demand for the company’s beverage processing facility. Once the methane gas from the landfill has been used to generate electricity, waste heat is then used for both heating and cooling. The system generates about 48 million kWh of on-site biomass energy annually.

Biomass Magazine says Poland will have a new biogas plant. Weltec Biopower GmbH has started to build the 2.4 MW facility in Darżyno, Pomerania, Poland. The input will include maize and liquid manure, which will be supplied by farmers from the vicinity and potato waste from a chip manufacturer. The biogas will run turbines to generate the electricity. As an agricultural country, Poland is considered a good source for biogas. Liquid manure from cattle, pigs, and poultry as well as renewable raw materials are readily available as substrate for biogas plants. Poland wants to have at least one agricultural biogas plant installed in each of its 2500 municipalities by 2020.

Belgium has a new biogas plant according to the heraldonline. Located in the province of Limburg, it is the first biogas plant in the Benelux using a pre-fermentation tank that enables a higher biogas production. The plant will mainly ferment corn grown by local farmers within a 20 km radius. The resuting biogas will be converted into electricity for the local power grid. The plant has a rating of 2.8 MW but can be doubled in size.

Biomass Magazine explores a biogas fuel cell in Güssing, Austria. Güssing Renewable Energy GmbH and ClearEdge Power have successfully tested a 5 kW fuel cell powered by biomethane produced from local biomass. The plan is to use this process to install 8.5 MW of fuel cell systems in Austria over the next three years with 50 MW installed by 2020.

In Alternative energy: Harnessing biogas The Express Tribune looks at biogas opportunities in Pakistan. “By converting animal waste into methane bio-gas, hundreds of cows can generate over hundred billion kilowatts of energy, enough to power millions of homes across the country. One cow alone can produce enough waste in one day to generate 3 kilowatt hours of electricity whereas only 2.4 kilowatt are needed to power a single 100 watt bulb for the day.”

The United Nations asked the US to change its biofuel policy to avoid a global food crisis reports Reuters. Fearing high food prices in poorer countries and mass starvation, the UN has urged the US to move away from food crops to energy and use non-food sources instead. Concern has escalated as drought in the U.S. midwest this summer has sent grain prices to record highs, causing a 6% surge in the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s July food price index. The US government has mandated that gasoline be mixed with 10% ethanol which is made from corn crops. The US now wants to increase the ethanol component to 15%. As a result, 40% of corn that originally was destined as food for humans and animals is now being siphoned off into biofuel production. The UN says: “An immediate, temporary suspension of that mandate would give some respite to the market and allow more of the crop to be channeled towards food and feed uses.” Farmers in the US who purchase corn to feed their livestock support such a suspension while biofuel companies say suspending the mandate could have several unintended effects, such as dampening investment in cellulosic and other advanced biofuels. See also The Guardian US and EU must change biofuel targets to avert food crisis says Nestlé chief.

Haiti will have its first waste to energy plant reports Haiti Libre. The 30 MW facility to produce electricity for Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area will begin construction in March 2013. The plant will be powered by the 2,000 tonnes of waste generated each day in the capital’s seven municipalities and two municipalities to the north. The waste-to-energy plant will also help offset the country’s 800 MW shortfall in electricity generation and reduce the reliance on diesel fuel and heavy fuel oil. Some 80% of power production in the country uses diesel fuel.